The Union health ministry on Saturday said that coronavirus infection could make a person more susceptible to developing tuberculosis, as it was an “opportunistic infection like black fungus”, but added that there was not enough scientific evidence to link the two.

The Mumbai development plan 2034 promises “one million affordable houses, eight million jobs, several open spaces, and slum rehabilitation projects” to the residents of the city. However, as recent video published by Urban Design Research Institute in Mumbai emphasises, the congested, unhygienic designs of several slum rehabilitation projects constructed so far have exposed residents to severe health risks, including that of tuberculosis.

The central government has decided to increase access to Johnson & Johnson’s anti-tuberculosis drug as part of its efforts to eradicate the disease by 2025, Reuters reported on Monday. The Health Ministry’s TB division chief Sunil Kharpade said the firm’s breakthrough medicine, Bedaquiline, will be available at 140 government-run tuberculosis treatment centres.

Saurabh Rane was 20 years old when he was diagnosed with tuberculosis. Rane, who was at the peak of his fitness and in the middle of the busiest time of his life since he was starting work as a doctor, found his life completely changes after he fell ill. He was started on medication that did not help much. He continued to get fevers, lose weight and feel confused, anxious and exhausted.

The National Institute of Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases on Wednesday (January 18) agreed to administer life-saving drug Bedaquiline to an 18-year-old woman from Patna who suffers from drug-resistant form of TB. “The drug has to be given in combination with other drugs, but doctors at the institute cannot give it to her without first conducting a drug-susceptibility test,” said Saket Sikri, the lawyer representing the institute at the Delhi High Court.

Officials from the National Institute of Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases on Monday (January 9) told the Delhi High Court that providing bedaquiline, a life-saving drug, to an 18-year-old woman suffering from a drug-resistant form of TB would fail to treat her. They warned that it may cause the drug-resistant bacteria to spread in her body.